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Clay Kaytis made his directing debut for Rovio Animation and Sony Pictures with The Angry Birds Movie (2016). Based on the number-one app of all time, the film grossed $352M worldwide and was Sony's #1 film of 2016. He followed this with The Christmas Chronicles (2018), which was Kaytis' first live-action film. The Kurt Russell starrer was viewed over 20 million times in its first week of release on Netflix. Next was a project very near to his heart, two animated Peanuts specials for AppleTV+: Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne (2021), which he co-wrote, and the Emmy nominated Snoopy Presents: To Mom (and Dad), with Love (2022). His latest film A Christmas Story Christmas (2022) (HBOMax), also Kaytis' first feature screenwriting credit, reunites the entire child cast of A Christmas Story (1983), 39 years after the original film's 1983 release.
Kaytis developed his talent as a film maker at Walt Disney Animation Studios, starting as an intern in the Talent Development Program in 1994. Kaytis animated on hand-drawn films including Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, The Emperor's New Groove and Treasure Planet. In 2004, Kaytis transitioned to CG animation to animate on Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons and was quickly promoted to Supervising Animator on Rhino, the hamster, for Bolt. For his work developing Rhino's CG fat rolls for the screen, Kaytis was awarded a U.S. Patent and Disney Inventor Award for his invention of a "distance based mesh deformer." Kaytis strongly influenced the culture and artistic standards at Disney as Head of Animation on the film Tangled, which set a new standard for CG animation. Next, Kaytis designed and directed the end credit titles for Wreck-it Ralph. He also worked on the academy award wining and record-breaking feature, Frozen and was Head of Animation on the short, Tangled Ever After. During his career at Disney, Kaytis was fortunate to work with legendary animators and film makers including John Lasseter, Glen Keane, Eric Goldberg and Ken Duncan. Kaytis has also directed commercials (for the film Hop) and the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park ride The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash. Kaytis was one of the first podcasters, creating The Animation Podcast in 2005, a series of interviews with animation legends that, although now dormant, is enjoyed by students, professionals and fans of animation worldwide. Kaytis has been nominated for an Annie Award, and two Visual Effects Society Awards. Together with his wife Monica Lago-Kaytis, they run their production company Frogbot Films, developing and producing live-action and animated films and TV series.
